We don’t hear from Rusty for what? 120 days?  And he gets one line.  And it makes not a lick of sense…  And Cherry is beside herself with pride, placing her hand on her breast in wonderment… “Did my boy come up with that on his own?  Well… will wonders never cease…”

We have either shot forward many weeks, or I don’t know when a moose calf reaches an age of self-sufficiency…  Last I checked, “Littlefoot” was still quite dependent on his mother…  Which makes me think Doc doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about…

But apparently we are bored with moose and are going to move on to beaver.  Fine with me… Anything to not have to look at the back of Doc’s head…

What is Cherry doing in the middle panel? Swearing and attesting to her personal knowledge of the fact that her father “Doc” Davis graduated from Vet School, passed the board exams and is a licensed, practicing veterinarian??

But Mark knows better that this…

Stop me before I meme again!!

And from the Curmudgeon:

Oh snap, Mark Trail will see your “let’s foster an orphaned deer” and raise you a “let’s foster an orphaned moose”! Do not try to muscle in on Mark Trail’s insane animal storylines, capisce?

Yes, oh, Poor Little Thing…  Never mind the carcass that was the “Little Guy’s” mother…  and how do we know it’s a “guy?” or are we using that in the gender neutral form of the word, as in, “C’mon, guys, let’s get a move-on…?”

And we are to believe that the calf will stand their stock-still and let Mark and Cherry walk up to it?  Oh heck why not, Mark’s powers are a mystery to most and needn’t be questioned at important times like this…  Better get out the giant formula bottle…  we have a big baby to feed!!  Or does Mark have Rusty don the Mother Moose outfit in order to not spoil any hope of returning the calf to the wild?

…of keeping wild animals as pets!  ALWAYS a good idea… NOT.  With one wolf tranq-ed, the pack will fall back confused and in disarray…  and Mark and Cherry can swoop in and save the calf, give him/her a proper name and take on another mouth to feed.  Rusty will be so excited!!

Mark, you are on heckuva shot!  Dart finds its Mark right in the shoulder and it’s sand-man city!  Not sure what Cherry is doing in the background- I would expect a look of encouragement rather than the look of dismay she is offering up…  maybe she is just shaken by the whole nature scene unfolding before her, or the knowledge that she’ll now have to raise this calf into an 1,100 lb. herbivore…

I can’t take it anymore…  I guess the objective here is to show us how nature works, maybe what separates us from the animals, or in some cases does not.  There’s no win-win in Nature.  Some lose in order to benefit others…  That’s why rabbits have so many bunnies, etc., etc… But when a species in crisis still gets targeted, and they are lucky have one offspring survive… and the mature also go down, well, that’s just sad.

But Mark understands.  But will he watch this unfold, or will his new-found human sensibilities kick in??  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow…

As the anonymous cow moose exposes her jugular vein…  and as she returns to her natural brown coloring, a process that began yesterday, upon reflection…  she’s no match for the intensity of the pack.  But this is what allows wolves to live, and all manner of scavenger that will make a meal off this large herbivore carcass…

But what of Junior?  Looking on in panel one in dismay… but do moose have feelings?  Can the calf comprehend what is going down? Or is Momma just a source of food?  A milk wagon on four legs?  And funny how the pack is going for the tough old cow and not the tender young calf.  But what do I know?  I’m not a wolf…

…shows that this really does happen... although the wolves in this short sequence are a lot more wary of the cow moose than what shows in the Trailverse…

Nature sure is cruel… Happy Monday, everyone.

“Cow Moose” just doesn’t sound right… that is until we ask ourselves, “Well, isn’t it ‘Bull Moose?'”  As in “Bull Moose Party?”  So “Cow Moose” it is…  funny how the Republicans under TR were deemed the Progressive Party… But then later his distant cousin FDR ran as a “traitor to his class” on the Democrat ticket and “progressed” more than any president of the modern era…  Same as the observation, “Well, didn’t the Republican party (formed around President Lincoln’s candidacy and ultimate victory) free the slaves?”  And finally wasn’t it the Southern Democrats that objected so strenuously to the Civil Rights Act in the 1960’s?    Politics can be so confusing…

But anyway, back to the bitch-slap delivered by one so-far-anonymous Cow Moose on “Old Ripper…”  Surprised O.R. didn’t send in one of his pack-mates to take the first blow, but then he must be the kind that leads from the front… But woe be to the calf, now with his/her mother occupied, the flank is exposed!  Mark! Where are you?!?

…of Mark and Cherry canoodling or a moose calf getting shredded, I’ll take the latter…

…but without antlers, I don’t know what chance the cow has against this pack.  I think they are both doomed to become a meal… Unless Mark gets there in time with his tranquilizer gun!

The moose census keeps dropping in my home state of Minnesota, and the wolves are being blamed… (or is it climate change??)  That, and we are constantly going to court to decide how many wolves to shoot in order to keep their numbers in check, having taken them off the endangered species list…  This is all very confusing and at times emotional.

Do any of you remember?  Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom?  Sunday nights before Disney…  he and his barefoot sidekick Jim Fowler would brave the wilds and get into just such situations as the one we see unfolding before us!

Pack hunting at its finest!  the stereotypical cunning wolf…  has there ever been one not depicted this way?  “Goober the not-so-cunning” wouldn’t be quite as interesting, plus he wouldn’t last very long without prey in his belly!

Old Ripper has been the Alpha for how long?  And how do we know it’s him?  In the Trailverse, the local animals all have names, at least the ones that matter, which doesn’t bode well for the so far anonymous moose cow and her calf…

But given the inappropriate coloring of the moose family, maybe they need to go anyway… I mean, what would the world do with a strain of moose with black fur??

Flash forward:  Mark tranquilizes Ripper, the pack falls into disarray, (for where are they without their leader?) the nameless moose get away, and something about the unconscious Ripper is discovered which leads us on a Lost Forest Adventure. Or this could just be another brief interlude that will be useful 100 days into the next story.  The only reason I am guessing is that I am already bored with this story.  I need to gird myself…

You ought to know that better than anyone!  And while it violates our human sensibilities to realize that young animals are food for Apex Predators, who are we to get in the way??

Hate to say it Mark, but you’ll have to summon all your Lee Harvey Oswald in the School Book Depository skills if you think you can get off four tranquilizer darts, have each one find its mark, in time to save the calf (not the “baby” thank you very much) from the pack…

Oh look, Honey.  Wildlife.  Shocking.  Only maybe it is…  these moose look like they have been ejected from the underworld…  Mother Moose’s eyes look as thought they are glowing red…  Certainly their coat color is all wrong- has there been an oil spill?  Has a tanker train gone off the rails?  That would certainly be timely what with what’s going down in West Virginia right now…

So good to be back, though… no questions, no repercussions from the trip, no insurance adjusters interrogating the Trails.  Never mind that the Swan is in a million pieces and there is a disembodied Pony Tail floating around…  Let’s see what happens next, kids!